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Missouri Counties

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Missouri Counties

Missouri has 114 Counties and one independent city. St. Louis City is separate from St. Louis County and is referred to as a "city not within a county."

Carter County, Missouri

Carter County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Van Buren
Year Organized: 1859
Square Miles: 508

Court House:

P.O. Box 517
County Courthouse
Van Buren, MO 63965-0517

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for Zimri A. Carter, pioneer settler.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Carter County

It was formed from parts of Ripley, Shannon and Wayne counties on March 10, 1859. Named for the first settler, Zimri A. Carter (see Carter Creek). Adam Lane of Ripley, John Buford of Reynolds, and D.C. Reed of Shannon counties, who were appointed to locate the seat of justice, met at the home of James Brown (see Brown Hollow) on the first Monday in April, 1859, and selected Van Buren, the old county seat of Ripley County, for the seat of justice. The old log courthouse erected in 1853 was used until 1867, when a frame building was erected, which very recently has been replaced by a good modern structure. (HIST. MISSOURI, Conrad I, 507-508; Douglas I, 317; Houck III, 159-160; R.L. Coleman)

Source: Pottenger, Cora Ann. "Place Names Of Five Southern Border Counties Of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1945.

Neighboring Counties:

Insert Counties Here

Cities and Towns:

- Ellsinore	city	Incorporated Area
- Grandin	city	Incorporated Area
- Van Buren (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."